China is spreading the anti-money laundering net wider by speeding up work on legislation, which experts say is vital as the finance industry opens up further.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, is soliciting public views on three draft regulations on banking, securities and futures, and insurance sectors which will put the financial industry in the frontline of the anti-money laundering war.

The three regulations list 59 kinds of transactions as "suspicious deals" that need to be reported to the relevant government bodies.

For example, daily cash transactions by individuals that exceed 50,000 yuan (US$6,300) or US$10,000 in foreign currency would be considered a "large sum transaction" and banks are required to report such cases to relevant government bodies, according to the draft rules.

"The detailed guidelines would make work more straightforward in those areas," said Yi Xianrong, a finance researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"When 'suspicious transactions' are not specified, it is hard for financial institutions to screen out possible money-laundering deals," the researcher said.

Financial institutions, the draft rules stipulate, should not provide financial services to customers whose bona fides are not established.

The country has moved aggressively on the front in recent years.

In 2004, an anti-money laundering monitoring analysis centre was established, which is tasked with collecting, analyzing and supplying information on money-laundering activities in the country.

Last year, the country joined as an observer the Financial Action Task Force on Anti-Money Laundering, a Paris-based international inter-governmental body set up in 1989.

The legislative process for the country's first anti-money laundering law is being accelerated, Xiang Junbo, vice-governor of PBOC, said at a work conference last month, without giving a timeframe.

China also plans to place foreign exchange and local currency money laundering under one administrative umbrella, Xiang said at the same meeting.

"As the renminbi is now acceptable in some regions such as Hong Kong and some neighbouring countries, the merger of these two functions is necessary," said Shi Yanping, a finance professor at University of International Business and Economics.

However, experts say efforts to fight the menace should not stop with the finance industry.

"Money laundering is also rampant in other sectors such as real estate and art auctions," said Yi.

(China Daily April 14, 2006)